Top ads of 2012: Old Spice, Ferris Bueller, Snoop Dogg...er, Lion

A screenshot of Volkswagen's "Bark Side" ad, which landed on YouTube's list of most popular commercials in 2012.

A screenshot of Volkswagen's "Bark Side" ad, which landed on YouTube's list of most popular commercials in 2012. (Volkswagen)

Tiffany Hsu

The most popular ads of 2012, according to YouTube, include a jab at the Apple iPhone, a choir of dogs barking the "Star Wars" theme, a time machine baby and the Old Spice guy losing his mind.

Actually, Old Spice is all over the YouTube Ads Leaderboard, with the men’s grooming products maker hogging four spots of 20.

Overall, the videos have more than 200 million combined views. Which is paltry when you consider the 358 million hits claimed by Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” video or Psy’s 948 million views for “Gangnam Style.”

But the nearly 21 million views garnered by Wieden+Kennedy London’s “My Time Is Now” soccer spot for Nike, putting it first on the YouTube leaderboard, are respectable. So are the nearly 18 million hits for the “Uncle Drew” Pepsi ad featuring basketball player Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers, created by the Marketing Arm and Davie Brown Entertainment.

Technically, the “Bark Side” ad for Volkswagen is a commercial for a commercial – it was released as a teaser for the German auto company’s full spot during the SuperBowl. But the collection of yapping pooches, dreamed up by Deutsch LA, managed to land third on YouTube’s list without a single image of a vehicle.

Also on the list: Volkswagen’s official game day spot featuring a chubby car-chasing dog, as well as other auto ads from Honda (with actor Matthew Broderick spoofing his role as Ferris Bueller), Chrysler (with Clint Eastwood putting in a good word for Detroit), Audi, Chevy, Toyota and Fiat.